³³ The disciples replied, “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”

⁵ Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” ⁶ He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money^[a] to feed them!”

⁸ Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. ⁹ “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

¹³ But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?”

⁴ His disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”

⁵ Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”

“Seven loaves,” they replied.

³⁷ But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money^[a] to buy food for all these people!”

¹⁵ That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

⁴² One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”

⁴³ “What?” his servant exclaimed. “Feed a hundred people with only this?”

But Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over!” ⁴⁴ And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised.

²¹ But Moses responded to the Lord, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’ ²² Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?”